By Greg Sullivan
Sports Editor

The Diamond Dogs have had a bumpy road so far in the early part of this season, but with Monday night's landslide win at rival Greene County, the team hopes to be getting back on the right track.
"We needed that," said Dogs Head Coach Brandon Patch. "We played real well. We've been hitting all year, it's just our defense wasn't up to snuff."
But Monday night the defense did come through, limiting the Tigers to just a pair of runs in a 14-2 win where their offense maintained their regular high level of performance.
Tyler Ward went 3 for 3 in the game with a homer, a double and single, to rack up two RBI and two runs scored.
Parker Cline went 2 for 4 for the Dogs with an RBI, three runs scored and a stolen base. Clay Duvall had a hit and 2 RBI. While J.D. Hawkins went 2 for 4 with an RBI and two runs scored. Caleb Duvall went 2 for 2 with three RBI and a run scored.
 Caleb Duvall also picked up the win pitching a complete game of five innings and allowing zero earned runs.
"Our defense was much more crisp in this game," Patch said. "Caleb did a nice job of inducing several ground ball outs and the defense made plays behind him."
Earlier in the week the story wasn't as good for the Dogs as they lost a pair of games, one to Monroe Area last Thursday night and one to Aquinas last Tuesday.
Against Monroe the Dogs fell 12-9 where they were unable to stop the Hurricanes' offense.
"Defensive miscues was the story of the game," Patch said. "There were several innings where our pitchers had to go out and get four or five outs an inning."
Despite the loss, the offensive production was there. Dylan Jaskowiak and Eddy Diaz each had a pair of hits for the Dogs who had nine hits and nine runs as a squad for the game.
In the early week game last week, the Dogs fell to a tough Aquinas team in Madison 8-4.
The team had some good at bats from J.D. Hawkins who went 2 for 3 and had a stolen base. Caleb Duvall had 3 RBI. Tyler Ward had a double and a run scored.
Caleb Duvall pitched four innings, giving up just one run in relief work, but the Dogs weren't able to mount a rally late.
The Dogs will get back on the field Wednesday when they visit Washington-Wilkes, and they conclude another busy week with North Oconee in Madison Friday night. The team will look to build on momentum from the big Greene win and carry that into the rest of this week's games.